Texas Democrat Rep. Marc Veasey will be the new co-chairman of the House General Aviation Caucus, joining Rep. Sam Graves, R- Mo.
First elected to the House in 2012, Veasey represents a district that includes parts of Fort Worth and Dallas. He said he’d work to increase “awareness about how important general aviation is to our economy and industrial base, totaling a more than $14 billion impact in Texas and over $150 billion nationally.”
Pete Bunce, the president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, said Veasey “spoke eloquently at GAMA’s General Aviation Jobs Rally in Dallas, Texas this past March about the significant economic and jobs impact of general aviation manufacturing on his district and the nation.”
Among the issues percolating in the general aviation world is the pending FAA rule on commercial use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Graves has been outspoken in his worries about the risk of UAVs colliding with small aircraft, especially ones used in agricultural spraying.
“There is a huge potential out there for UAVs in the agriculture sector but they’re in that same airspace and it concerns me a great deal,” Graves said at a Dec. 10 hearing of the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
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